‘Power Book II: Ghost’ Season 5, Episode 6: Most corrupt police ever? 

OPINION: The final season of “Power Book II: Ghost” is doing nothing for police and community relations in New York City.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

After a long hiatus, “Power Book II: Ghost” is back for the final five episodes of the series. I ain’t gon’ hold you, I’ve been waiting for this show to come back because I’m genuinely curious to see how in the world the writers are going to wrap up a show that legitimately has plenty of runway for at least a few more seasons. Tariq and Brayden have decided — well Tariq has, anyway — to become the biggest drug dealers in the game as a means of protecting themselves and Tariq’s newly forming family now that he’s learned that Diana is preggers. I don’t see it for them; they spend most of their time as drug dealers running from people trying to kill them. I don’t know a ton about drug dealing, but I would assume that when you spend more time trying to stay alive so you can sell your drugs means something is amiss. 

For what it’s worth, I don’t think much of the Tejada drug operation or Noma either. What I see on television is a bunch of people who aren’t good at any of their jobs, save for Kane who is wonderful in his role as a soldier. 

But let’s talk about the most important things we gleaned from this latest episode: Det. Carter’s task force might actually be the most corrupt of all time, big or small screen. The suspension of reality it takes to watch them work is gargantuan. It’s like “Training Day 2: Police As Judge and Jury.” Like, Carter’s team kills drug dealers, and it looks like they do it a lot. Is nobody wondering who keeps killing the drug dealers? Further, Carter and Det. Lewis, the lone female officer in his detail, have a shouting conversation on the phone with Zion for unintentionally killing Congressman Wylie Adams. They’re in the office yelling that they know who killed him and those are not soundproof walls. They feel that comfortable??? Come on. And then Det. Lewis is tasked to kill Zion, but she can’t do it because she has to go meet with NYPD’s internal affairs division. I laughed. So what does she do?

She tells Diana to go kill Zion because nobody else is available. 

WHAT?!??!???!? 

Diana rightly asks if she looks like Colombiana to Det. Lewis, and while the whole Tejada family annoys me, Diana hit that nail on the head. Like …WHAT?!?!? We’re just outsourcing assassinations to the one family member who seems least likely to be good at that thing? Everybody is bad at everything. So what does Diana do? She has Tariq do it. Makes sense to me. 

BUT ….

Det. Lewis is watching the murder on like closed-circuit video. So let me get this right: The police have a safe house where they kill people, and they have the EVIDENCE on what amounts to a Ring doorbell camera???? Somebody make it stop. Seriously. 

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Carter’s team also has Dru kill somebody inside of Riker’s. Fine. Like, fine. I’m exhausted. But Carter isn’t done. While Carter’s team goes after the Russians so he can find out their supplier — and also take all their money — Det. Kamal Tate (Rashad Tate’s brother) sees one of Carter’s guys kill some folks with reckless abandon and then decides to tell Carter he has a dirty cop on his detail. What does Carter do then? He kills him, of course. Carter is killing cops, too??? Worst cops ever. 

And don’t even get me started on Det. Lewis out here terminating pregnancies with her Timberlands. To quote The Notorious B.I.G., “somebody gots to die.” 

We have four episodes left, and I truly, sincerely, have no idea how this show is going to end in a way that does true service to what this show has been. What I do know is that Carter doesn’t know that Rashad Tate used to go by O’Dog before he left Los Angeles to move to New York and change his life. With my whole heart, I hope somebody takes Carter out. I hate this task force and everybody on it, and I want them to all die painful deaths. No prison, just death. 

I have hated Michael Ealy’s character in several films and now a television series; somebody get that man an Emmy. 

Seriously though, HOW IS THIS GOING TO END????

Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).